I crawled out of bed this morning and sat down in front of my computer to check my emails like I do every morning. It was gloomy looking outside and something told me before I opened the first one that today was not going to be a good day. And once I looked over my emails it only confirmed my thoughts.

I had an email from one of our concerned readers pointing out to me a link of a case in Texas that she thought I would like to hear about, and she was right. I stand corrected, I didnâ€™t want to hear about it but I needed to know about it even though it made me sick on my stomach when I read it.

It was an article from The Houston Chronicle about a little 3 year old child that only weighs 17 pounds. This sweet innocent child is literally fighting for his life right now. In the introduction to the article it states:

Now doctors are introducing him to whatâ€™s been missing most in his short life: food.

I cried then and I have to admit I am crying now. I canâ€™t imagine this poor little boy and the pure hell this child has been going through and yet he continues to fight to live.

Three year old Kayvon Lewis was admitted into the hospital last month where doctors say he was extremely malnourished, dehydrated and at risk for heart failure and liver damage. This little boy canâ€™t walk and he canâ€™t even talk. He is blind and suffers from seizures at times as much as five times a day.

Kayvon mother, 30 year old Marcia Holliday is now in jail and she has been charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission which is a first degree felony. Authorities say the mother was literally starving the boy to death which is a form of abuse that doctors donâ€™t see very often.

It is reported that the mother brought Kayvon to the Memorial Hermann Childrenâ€™s Hospital on October 15th. She told the doctors there that her son was not eating or drinking and he had not wet his diaper all day. She mentioned nothing about the child being so underweight or that he wasnâ€™t able to do any of the things a normal child his age normally can do, like walk or talk.

A medical examiner that checked the child out said Kayvon couldnâ€™t walk, crawl, sit up without support, pass objects between hands, say mama or dada, wave bye bye and he doesnâ€™t orient to voice. A CPS caseworker said, â€œKayvon T. Lewisâ€™s nutritional level was 9.2 when a normal level is 45 and a low level is 18.â€

Doctors claim that even though they found that Kayvon had seizures, scoliosis, and asthma underlying health problems, none of the conditions could be responsible for his starved state. The report says that the only reasonable explanation for his starvation is physical neglect.

OK so the mother can be blamed for this clearly as she was the responsible one for her son. But as I read more on the report I got really upset. The CPS had received a complaint which they investigated first in January 2008. They did find Kayvonâ€™s mother intoxicated on drugs and the child appeared to be a failure to thrive child. They ordered sessions with a state dietitian and physical therapy for him. No one noticed anything about the abnormal size he was for his age. They didnâ€™t find anything to say he was in enough danger that he should be taken from his home according to the court documents.

The case remained open though and on March 27, 2008 they found after taking a drug test that the mother tested positive for marijuana yet she promised to enroll in a series of early childhood intervention classes so they left the boy in her custody and on April 1, 2008 they closed the case.

The next month Kayvon was taken to Dr. Niala Siddiqi just before he turned 2 years old and he weighed 18 pounds and 6 ounces. By August 28, 2009 instead of gaining weight the poor boy had lost more than a pound. According to one of the doctors that examined Kayvon, any child who maintained such a low weight for more than half of his life should have been a red flag alert that he was suffering from starvation.

Holliday of course denies starving her son. â€œEverything they say (CPS) is a lie. He wasnâ€™t eating or drinking,â€ she said. â€œHe has a lot of problems going on.

Since he has been in the hospital his liquid intake is monitored closely. They say at this point too much food can overwhelm the underdeveloped organs in his little body. Dr. Rebecca Giradet, an associate professor at the medical school and staff physician at Memorial Hermann, said, â€œSince their bodies have not been seeing normal quantities of fats and carbohydrates, their bodily functions kind of shut down. Itâ€™s very dangerous to suddenly feed a starved child normal food. They can go into liver failure, heart arrhythmia. The pancreas does not make insulin anymore. All those functions are not working.â€

They had to place a white mesh glove on his left hand because he has starved for so long that he had started sucking his thumb and he did it so much that he had it raw and a sore had formed on it.

Amazingly Kayvon wasnâ€™t the only child at home. He also had a 5 year old sister and a 6 year old brother and neither of them showed any signs of starvation or of abuse, thankfully. They are both are in foster care right now.

A doctor said that Kayvon is now out of intensive care but he still hasnâ€™t been given solid food, not even Crackers or Cheerios. My kids were eating vanilla wafer cookies before they were even a year old. I feel so sorry for this little boy.

Please remember little Kayvon Lewis in your prayers. Somehow this child has got a will to survive. If not he would have passed away a long time ago. Maybe our prayers can give him the strength he actually needs to continue fighting and he will eventually be able to go on living and perhaps look back at what has happened to him and say he knew he could beat this. My prayers are with him.

11 users commented in " Another Case of Child Abuse – How Could This Have Happened? "

Jan, thank you for loving the innocent and helpless. I join you in praying for this precious one.

Queenie said,

in December 1st, 2009 at 12:08 am

Thank you Jan for bringing this to light. I will pray for little Kayvon’s recovery and will continue to pray for all other missing & abused children. Once again, the system has failed an innocent child. His own mother failed him most of all!

mommaof5 said,

in December 1st, 2009 at 1:00 am

I thank and applaude to people like you that take your time and write these stories we all need to know that this is going on and we need to get together and fight for these children it upsets me that there are children out there being abused and people just sit back and dont do anything. Our justice system needs to get there stories straight and start protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty

HollysGmom said,

in December 1st, 2009 at 1:03 am

Jan;
Thank you for this article. I had just mentioned the “skapegoat” child as an abuse issue. It’s so hard to imagine, as a mother myself, how a woman could do this to her own child. It needs public attention. It also needs thorough investigation of DCFS & practices. Someone there should not only lose thier job but thier own freedom. Why is it that a lowly convienience store clerk can lose thier job & freedom for selling alcohol and/or cigarettes to a minor, but a DCFS worker can let a child die or nearly die without facing the same consequesnces. I say stop the abuses within the system, as well as without. First Shaniya Davis, now Kayvon…what child will be next?

Justice said,

in December 1st, 2009 at 1:19 am

Jan, thank you for this heartbreaking article.

It is very tragic and sad that so many people failed Kayvon including Children’s Protective Services and Dr. Siddiqi. The doctor should have reported the mother to CPS immediately.

It makes me feel so sad and I cried when I thought of the pain little Kayvon must have been in during the starving process the mother put him through. This did not happen overnight. Kayvon suffered because of his mother. Out of three children, how could she have picked this innocent child to abuse by starvation?

I hope this woman (she does not deserve to be called a mother) gets life without parole when her trial comes up!

Jan, thank you for bringing awareness to this type of abuse. Kayvon was so close to death.

My thoughts and prayers are with Kayvon. I hope he recovers. How he survived this….only God knows. Kayvon is a fighter!
____________
I am the “original” Justice.

Kat said,

in December 1st, 2009 at 9:16 am

I know when we pray for these little ones and their families that sometimes it seems that prayers go unanswered. When I pray for these children I like to ask God to…”Please help the missing and return them to their families, and please help those who are hurting.” Since I have been praying for the missing, and others along with me, so many children have come home. How bizarre is it that Dugard was brought home after so many years. There are many other examples of those found alive. Although Caylee Anthony did not return home alive, at least she was able to be buried in a respectful manner. Her soul knows she was loved. This story, like so many others, touches me to my core. I pray they can all come home and begin a new, but God has his reasons for the things that happen. Even though we may not always understand them.

We just need faith that there is a reason. For example, Shaniya Davis, yes she was murdered. But what if she had survived this ordeal. Would she have lived a wonderful life ordeal after ordeal. We really can’t say for sure, but I am sure she is much happier with Jesus.

looking for justice said,

in December 1st, 2009 at 9:47 am

Thank you Jan for this very touching story. I will pray for this little boy and his siblings. I pray that the children will be able to stay together and be put with a family that will give them enough love to erase the abuse they have endured thus far.

oceanviewnan said,

in December 1st, 2009 at 3:14 pm

My prayers for little Kayvon, it’s obvious to me the mother decided to let him starve to death rather than get him help for his handicaps. Fight on, Kayvon, there are wonderful things in store for you!

judithan said,

in December 1st, 2009 at 10:01 pm

Jan, thanks for bringing attention to this childs’ dilemma, Is it getting worse with the abuse of children or is TV and internet exposing it more? Is it because of substance abuse some of our young adults are involved with? I’m not sure DCFS can even keep up with all that’s happening with the children in this country. I will pray for this child and all of the others who are abused, missing or found deceased because I don’t have a clue how to solve the problem.

Kool Look said,

in December 2nd, 2009 at 9:20 am

This little fella will be saved, Praise God. Yes poster members, prayer works. Prayer moves God and is pleasing to his ears. We never know how maybe just our one prayer, made all the difference as we don’t understand and know all the mysteries of the Lord. But through prayer, much is revealed.

Jan, I pray coverings over your heart, as apparently you are pulled towards the little ones. Never too much coverage or knowledge concerning abuse and neglect. For every person we educate, I believe the Lord shall multiply that into saving the life of another child here on Earth. Now that’s motivation to keep on keepin on in this Journey for the Babes. Praise God. We educate, God delivers another child to safety. That’s a precious promise. Amen~~~~~~

oceanviewnan said,

in December 2nd, 2009 at 4:01 pm

Jan, and please when you are remembering the missing and the dead, remeber little Robert Manwill, also. A precious life cut short by the very people that were supposed to protect him against everything.

Leave A Reply

Username (*required)

Email Address (*private)

Website (*optional)

Advertisements

BloggerNews On The Air

We are pleased to announce our latest endeavor, Blogger News is now sponsoring some radio shows on Blog Talk Radio. You can check our full schedule, and listen to previous broadcasts here, and we hope that you will join us on the air in this new venture.